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Re: "added rent" in Florida - Landlord Forum thread 359141

Re: "added rent" in Florida by LAMAC66 on March 19, 2019 @08:27

                              
In most states yes. Check your state landlord tenant law. If you havent already adapt your lease to state landlord/tenant law.

Then have a landlord attorney review it. Money well spent. Believe that.
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Re: "added rent" in Florida by Karen on March 19, 2019 @09:35 [ Reply ]
I looked through my state's statutes last evening and couldn't find anything that would disallow that. My lease is based off the LPA lease and calls for damages to be classified as "added rent," therefore technically the tenant is now delinquent.
    Re: by AnonymousFL on March 19, 2019 @12:44 [ Reply ]
    Be careful. Saying that there is nothing that would 'disallow' what you want to do is not permission to do so. There are all sorts of things you could come up with that Florida statutes would not disallow - but it would not make them legal.

    Personally, I don't like the idea of calling repairs "Added rent", because they are not. They are charges for services rendered.

    Also, the LPA lease is not specific to any one state. I am not familiar with that lease myself, but I would bet that it is written in general terms to make it useful across all states. That means some statutes that are specific to certain states may not be as well covered as they could be in you used a lease drafted by a local lawyer.

    Do you have an Allocation of Payments clause in your lease that states how payments will be applied? If not, you should consider adding one for the future that states how payments will be applied.

    Does your lease allow for interest charges on certain unpaid amounts such as repairs or utilities (if invoiced by landlords)? This is another way to nudge tenants towards paying their past due bills. Each month they do not pay, they get hit with another charge. Florida allows for up to 18% interest,but you should have it spelled out in the lease beforehand.

    If you have none of the above in your lease to support your action, I suggest trying to get in touch with the tenant personally to discuss the bill first. Call it a follow-up to confirm that everything is working OK, and then discuss the payment of the bill. Perhaps you can come up with a schedule. If that gets you no where, I think your best bet is to take a stance that payments are allocated based on age of the charges. It is a reasonable stance to take anyway. Once payments have been allocated to the repair bill, then it WILL be the rent that is not covered. It may mean that the account goes delinquent for an extra month, but I think it is worth trying. It is a subtle difference, but it is better to evict for actual rent than it is for a repair that you are calling "rent". You also would have a reasonable explanation why the eviction would be for rent if it came to it. A judge may not agree with the distinction, but some may (if it came to it).

    Good luck with it...and don't forget to amend your future leases with guidelines to cover these sorts of situations.
      Re: by Karen on March 19, 2019 @19:38 [ Reply ]
      Thank you so much for the thorough and thoughtful reply.

      My lease is a combination of the LPA lease, a lease I had drawn up by a local attorney, and my own experiences.

      I do not have an "allocation of payment" clause at present but will going forward. I also do not have interest charges for unpaid amounts but will consider that as well.

      In this case, the tenants received the bill and did not contact us with their concerns or their desire to set up a payment schedule (which would have been the best time to have that discussion). We contacted them when the payment deadline had lapsed and they told us they would "pay as we can." To me, that is unacceptable as I am not their lender. I already paid to have the damages fixed and now it's their turn to take care of their responsibility. I feel that I need to be firm or else tenants will take advantage of any leniency and not respect the landlord or lease.

      I like your suggestion of allocating the next payment to the repair bill first (based on age of charges) and then dealing with unpaid rent if they let it get that far. We'll see what happens.

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